I loved The Extraordinaries! I couldn't put this book down - it was a fun and cute read that I tore through.
There are two Extraordinaries in Nova City: Shadow Star and his nemesis Pyro Storm. And Nick Bell is obsessed with Shadow Star. Like "sleeps-with-a-pillow-of-Shadow-Star's-face" level obsessed. So when he meets Shadow Star and decides to become an Extraordinary himself, he enlists the reluctant help of his perfect/cute best friend Seth, who's been...oddly absent lately.
Nick is both queer and neurodiverse, which is great to see in a main character. He's also extra. EXTRA extra. Sometimes too extra - which was one of my few complaints with this book (I liked the plot, I enjoyed most of the characters, and I couldn't put it down - but sometimes I couldn't stand Nick because of how melodramatic he gets). He has a great group of friends and an adorable relationship with his dad. His dad, of course, is a local police officer, and his mom died a few years back (I'm sure everyone else can see this set up as the beginnings to a classic superhero origin story... even though Nick's not Extraordinary). Plus he has a nemesis/possible romantic rival in the reporter who's always on the scene to catch a quick interview with Shadow Star (even though the reporter doesn't know he exists).
Even though Nick's not a superhero and misses the action a surprising amount of the time, he has thoughts about it. And Shadow Storm. So many thoughts about Shadow Storm.
This book is easy to read and fun! It sucked me in so much more thoroughly than I expected. I love a good superhero origin story, but this isn't really that - it does a great job of taking the superhero tropes and turning them around.
Thanks to Tor/Forge and BookishFirst for the advance copy!
There are two Extraordinaries in Nova City: Shadow Star and his nemesis Pyro Storm. And Nick Bell is obsessed with Shadow Star. Like "sleeps-with-a-pillow-of-Shadow-Star's-face" level obsessed. So when he meets Shadow Star and decides to become an Extraordinary himself, he enlists the reluctant help of his perfect/cute best friend Seth, who's been...oddly absent lately.
Nick is both queer and neurodiverse, which is great to see in a main character. He's also extra. EXTRA extra. Sometimes too extra - which was one of my few complaints with this book (I liked the plot, I enjoyed most of the characters, and I couldn't put it down - but sometimes I couldn't stand Nick because of how melodramatic he gets). He has a great group of friends and an adorable relationship with his dad. His dad, of course, is a local police officer, and his mom died a few years back (I'm sure everyone else can see this set up as the beginnings to a classic superhero origin story... even though Nick's not Extraordinary). Plus he has a nemesis/possible romantic rival in the reporter who's always on the scene to catch a quick interview with Shadow Star (even though the reporter doesn't know he exists).
Even though Nick's not a superhero and misses the action a surprising amount of the time, he has thoughts about it. And Shadow Storm. So many thoughts about Shadow Storm.
This book is easy to read and fun! It sucked me in so much more thoroughly than I expected. I love a good superhero origin story, but this isn't really that - it does a great job of taking the superhero tropes and turning them around.
Thanks to Tor/Forge and BookishFirst for the advance copy!